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Before and After: Main Floor Maine Home, Part 1

August 30, 2018

You’ll have to forgive me if I seem a little distracted or if there are any typos… I have been up since really early while my husband underwent back surgery this morning.

Now… back to the main floor of our Maine home. My first impressions of the main floor were that it had good bones… wood floors (which were in need of refinishing), stainless steel (except the dishwasher), cabinets and counters were decent.

Befores:

But when we walked out on the deck… the tour was over. We were buying this house.

Here are some other shots of the kitchen. Cabinets were the original cabinets painted in a cream. The cabinet over the microwave was clearly raised to accommodate it, so that was something I knew I would want to correct.

The counters looked like they were manufactured with the idea of a backsplash in mind. I planned on keeping this at first… you’ll have to see what I decided…

The cabinets needed jewelry and a more updated color… and of course, all the trim would need to be painted out white.

I never understood why they didn’t pay a little extra to create a bar area? It always struck me odd.

The floors are red oak, they were very gold, my initial thought was to stain them a walnut brown color. But then discovered a product by Bona that I ended up going with (this is NOT a sponsored post).

This room was a gem… although the pictures will show this as a bedroom/office nook. We used this as a playroom for our kids and an office for me where I completed my master’s degree. One odd thing is that it had beautiful wood floors but they are maple… right next to oak floors. I am not sure why people do this… and maple is not easily stainable to try and make the mismatch less noticeable. We had one wood floor guy suggested ripping it all out and putting in matching stuff.

The main floor bath was very vanilla. Nothing really going on in here.

Afters:

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the way the kitchen turned out. A lot of blood (literally), sweat, and tears went into this room. I will start with the top and move down. On the top of the cabinets, I added wood on the top of a few strategic cabinets to add a staggered effect and give it a more custom look. Of course I had to hide the seams with trim… crown on the top and a tiny trim on the bottom of the cabinet. One additional note while we are on this shot, I just used a peel and stick stainless steel sticker on the dishwasher to make it a matching set.

The cabinets were repainted Revere Pewter, which was selected based off the granite color White G… and because it’s just a good paint color. White subway tile with a beveled edge with a warm gray grout. I really like the added dimension this gives. I also added all new hardware with knobs and cup pulls in a brushed nickel. A new undermount sink was included with the granite. We added a new faucet.

I left the wall color because it was in good condition, also a good color, and matched my existing fabric. I painted all the trim white including the beam. Also, to disguise the odd couple inch stagger that already existed over the microwave, I also removed the doors and added beadboard to create a decorative space, which was fine because there is plenty of storage space.

One of my favorite updates I did was adding a bat and board, corbels and extended the granite to create a much needed and used bar.

The upper cabinet to the left of the sink was a little overwhelming so I added the decorative arrow to break it up a little.

The dining room really didn’t get much other than some new shades (a little crooked in the picture =P)… this was taken as we were walking out the door to move to Florida, but I wish I could reach into this picture and straighten them. The dining set was from our home before this. In fact, this dining set has had nine lives.

I got a cute bench at the Goodwill for $35. It was navy blue with blue dots. It was cute, but didn’t really match the decor… so I made a slipcover. Let’s talk floors. As you can see, we ended up going lighter. It’s by Bona called Nordic Seal. Kind of a whitewashed effect. It gives a beachy feel. The process of refinishing the floors is probably a post all by itself.

It’s been a long day, but I really wanted to get this out. I will post the rest of the first floor very soon! Thank you for understanding.